THE organisation which urged grassroots campaigners to help take down the African warlord Joseph Kony made nearly $20 million last year with its Kony 2012 campaign.

And according to Invisible Children's 2011-12 financial report, the company still has $12.6 million of campaign funds in its coffers after spending $6.7 million on expenses.

Invisible Children created the half-hour film, which broke records with more than 100 million views in less than a week, in March last year to "make Kony famous".

Kony runs the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Africa and is responsible for massacres, mass rapes, and creating a legion of child soldiers. He has evaded capture for nearly three decades.

The viral video encouraged people to spread the word, sign a pledge, buy a Kony 2012 action kit and donate to Invisible Children.

Invisible Children released its financial report on Facebook between Christmas and New Year. It showed the organisation's revenues more than doubled from the previous year, mostly thanks to the sale of "awareness products" such as Kony 2012 t-shirts and bracelets.

Its overall revenue for the year, made up from various sources including the Kony 2012 campaign, was $31.94 million. Its total expenses were $15.98 million. Of that, the company spent 81.48 per cent on "media, mobilisation, protection and recovery", according to the report.

About 35 per cent was spent on "mobilisation", about 9 per cent on media, 10 per cent on protection, and 27 per cent on recovery.

The biggest increase in expenses was for mobilisation, which includes film tours and music tours, international events and advocacy.

The report also shows that almost all revenue raised by Invisible Children in the 2012 financial year was unrestricted, that is the funds could be spent on anything rather than just the program which generated the funds.

A viral video has just one aim - bringing Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony to justice

In 2010, its revenue was about $8.2 million, and almost half of that was restricted so it could only be spent on specific programs. In 2011, revenue was $13.7 million, and $5.66 million of that was restricted.

While in 2012, revenue skyrocketed to $31.939 million, but just $1.28 million was restricted.

Kate Costello, executive director of Governance Matters, said people should question why such a company appeared to spend more on marketing than on programs to help people.

"There's a moral obligation … to be able to demonstrate that the bulk of that money is going into the campaign itself," she said.

"With the Kony thing, people paid to get this man … but if you look at their financials … what's the logic in an organisation that is spending more on promoting itself than on its actual programs?

"If people want the funds that they have donated to be used for the purposes that they intended they should email the organisation and ask where it's going. Where's it going? Why so much on promotion and not so much on programs?"

Invisible Children were contacted by news.com.au but did not respond.

Founder Jason Russell, who had a very public breakdown after he was found running around the streets in his underwear "making sexual gestures and vandalising cars", says in the annual report that he's "crazy".

"I guess I have always been 'crazy'," he writes. "Not in the naked-on-a-San-Diego-street-corner kind of way, but in that I've spent my whole life thinking bigger than the box. Shooting for the stars.

"Because if you want to do something big, you have to be crazy enough to believe you can; and without that belief, the impossible remains impossible."

The company's CEO Ben Keesey said the impact of Kony 2012 exceeded their "wildest dreams".

"The video had more than 100 million views within six days of launching the campaign," he said.

"Our website had nearly half a million unique visitors in a single day; a thousand articles were being published every day about the conflict; and seven of the ten worldwide trending topics on Twitter had to do with Kony 2012 and the LRA.

"It was more than we expected, and in some ways it was more than we could handle."

Invisible Children has $17.7 million worth of assets, according to the financial report. Of this, about $15.5 million is in cash. It also has more than $800,000 worth of "awareness product inventory", such as t-shirts, action kits and DVDs, which - despite presumably being labelled as 2012 products - it expects to sell.

The Huffington Post reported that the House passed the bill by voice vote on January 1 and sent it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The State Department strongly backed the legislation.

"This bill responds to the need to develop more tools to pursue the world's worst," Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., sponsor of the legislation and the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told The Huffington Post.

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Comments on this story

Matt Posted at 3:59 PM January 11, 2013

Oh no's... Did the wheels fall off the badwagon? Nevermind, another will be along shortly.

Emma of Whitebridge Posted at 2:24 PM January 11, 2013

Even if they did get rid of Kony for good, there will always be a 2nd in line to take over where Kony left off ... I agree with John from Canberra.

Michael of Adelaide Posted at 2:13 PM January 11, 2013

Kony 2012 was about as effective in dealing with real world issues as slapping a bumper sticker on a car.

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